


CDLX.

by Ex-Genesis (SevlinRipley)



Category: Disney Live Action
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 00:38:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13493175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SevlinRipley/pseuds/Ex-Genesis
Summary: Studying for the SATs tuckers them out.





	CDLX.

"We clearly don't have a good enough reward system in place," Merton said, sighing. He looked at Tommy's sleeping face, buried halfway into Merton's pillow, flash cards fanned out over the coverlet. Having fallen from Tommy's grip. Apparently he'd taken too long to explain how much of the English language originated elsewhere. His fault for going on a tangent. None of what he prattled about was likely to be on the SAT. Which was what they were _supposed_ to be studying for.

Merton gingerly slipped off of the bed, and then began tugging at the corner of the comforter until it was guided all the way to the other side. It covered Tommy, now, so that when his body temperature dropped, it wouldn't wake him. Although he ran warm with the wolf's blood in his veins, Merton had always seen him sleep wrapped up. The exception being summertime. Pups liked to be cozy, after all.

The books and notepaper that had accumulated at either side of the bed, along with chip and candy wrappers, Merton simply swept under the bed with his foot. They could clean up in the morning, when they returned to studying. Not exactly Saturday morning cartoons, but Merton would be damned if he'd let Tommy go to university off football alone.

Tommy didn't have a choice, being that he wasn't meant to sleep over, however Merton was going to take full advantage of having his PJs nearby. Shedding the clothes he wore to school, he put on a large heather-gray tee and some long plaid pants. So he wasn't as dark and dreary by night. Only Tommy knew _that_.

After turning out the lights, Merton climbed beneath the sheets, yawning as he looked over at the digital clock on his bedside table. Two. Guess he couldn't blame Tommy for conking out. It was probably best for retention's sake anyway. Knowing his mom, they'd be up and at 'em come eight-thirty, with bags under their eyes. Merton sleepily thought a nap sounded good...

"Night, buddy," Merton whispered, hands folded atop his stomach, as he turned to look at Tommy. His features more poignant in the shadow of night. Brows raised, cheek bones stark, lips soft.

Merton blinked. _One of these things is not like the other,_ a voice sprang forth from the recesses of his mind. He swallowed, then closed his eyes, and angled his face toward the ceiling. Tired as he was, he couldn't help thinking about the fact that he'd always tried so hard to stand out from the crowd. Do something - be someone easily pegged as an outsider. A piece of his analytical brain, spurred from the reading comprehension and creative writing courses they'd been engulfing at school, suggested that perhaps this was, in some part, a way to cover up that which _really_ made him different.

Girls were exciting to him. That much was true. However it was times like these, which made him wonder if 'exciting' wasn't so much the whole package, as a big piece of a puzzle. If the latter, he could undoubtedly secure more pieces from his relationship with Tommy. Security, loyalty, humor, sincerity... Just to name a few.

Something settled within, and he let himself drift off.

When he woke an hour or so later to find that Tommy had shifted, an arm around his waist, and the coverlet thrown halfway over Merton, with an ankle tucked next to his... Merton decided not to freak out about it. The fact that he was sleepy helped in making this decision, but what really cemented everything was the fact that if Tommy was ignorant of the position, and therefore comfortable, then why couldn't Merton make the same excuse. Come morning. If necessary.

And was he taking advantage of a situation? Perhaps. But there was still something of a world between them, and just for once, something like this could be innocent _and_ fulfilling. And if Tommy really found the idea of it so abhorrent, he could sleep on the _floor_ next time Merton helped him learn a thousand different words that Tommy had never heard before.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry my Benedryl kicked in halfway through and I think it made me a little lazy.


End file.
